Hydreon RG11 Rain Sensor

[hughgilhespie]

Hi,

I have just bought a pair of Hydreon RG11 rain detectors directly from Hydreon in the USA.

The cost was around US$ 143 for the two, so about £45 each. You can buy these detectors in the UK from a couple of places, ProData Weather Systems sell them for £95 each and Amazon have them for £73.59 but these are actually sent from the USA and there is a £17.98 delivery charge.

The RG11 detectors are an interesting design that uses an optical sensor to detect rain. I believe the same sensors that are used to trigger automatic car windshield wipers. I haven't tried them yet but they are claimed to be very sensitive. They do a have a nice, simple interface. They need a 12 volt DC power supply and the output is a relay that operates when rain is detected.

I bought two for my observatory  because in theory at least you can set them so that one detects rain drops and the other detects heavy condensation. Dunno if that will work but worth a go.

If anyone does decide to buy these units direct from Hydreon please note that that their e-commerce system requires a 5 digit zip code on the billing address otherwise it rejects your card. I used 12345 and it worked fine. Obviously you need to put your correct UK post code into the Delivery address part of the website.

Regards, Hugh

[skybadger]

Thanks for that Hugh  - one ordered. Was getting frustrated trying to work out what filed was tripping the credit card purchase failure.

Mike

 

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh,

I'm looking at fitting one of these as a backup to my CloudWatcher. Any chance of an update.

Steve